Lifelong Massachusetts resident Thomas P. Arria has moved to New York to serve as the principal of Bishop Ford Central Catholic High School. Welcome to Brooklyn!
The sixty-two-year-old was born in Somerville, Massachusetts. He got his bachelor's degree in history from Boston State College, where he minored in
secondary education and English. He went on to get his master’s from University of Massachusetts Boston in secondary education, and he got a CAES from Boston College in Catholic school leadership.
Mr. Arria's first teaching job was in 1974 at St. Anthony School in the Brighton/Allston neighborhoods of Boston. Three months later, he took a position as a teacher at Malden Catholic
High School. He worked there from 1974 to 2001: For twelve years, he taught social studies. He occasionally taught English, biology, and religion. He was a department chair, and he was vice principal.for fifteen years.
Next, he spent four years at Pope John XXIII Central High School in Everett, MA. He then became Malden Catholic's first lay headmaster, serving from July 2005 until July 2008, at which time he became the headmaster at Cathedral High School in Boston. In August 2012, Mr. Arria was hired as the principal of Notre Dame Cristo Rey High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts. And now he's here!